Born a Crime

by

Trevor Noah

A colored suburban neighborhood in Johannesburg where Patricia and Trevor move after apartheid. For the first time, they have a full house and Trevor has his own room, which makes him uncomfortable. The other colored kids in the neighborhood look down on Trevor both for speaking English (instead of Afrikaans) and for remaining so closely tied to his Xhosa roots (while colored people lost their cultural ties to native African groups many generations ago).

Eden Park Quotes in Born a Crime

The Born a Crime quotes below are all either spoken by Eden Park or refer to Eden Park. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Racism, Apartheid, and the Cycle of Poverty Theme Icon
).
Chapter 9 Quotes

Colored people had it rough. Imagine: You've been brainwashed into believing that your blood is tainted. You've spent all your time assimilating and aspiring to whiteness. Then, just as you think you're closing in on the finish line, some fucking guy named Nelson Mandela comes along and flips the country on its head. Now the finish line is back where the starting line was, and the benchmark is black. Black is in charge. Black is beautiful. Black is powerful. For centuries colored people were told: Blacks are monkeys. Don't swing from the trees like them. Learn to walk upright like the white man. Then all of a sudden it's Planet of the Apes, and the monkeys have taken over.

Related Characters: Trevor Noah (speaker)
Page Number: 120
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Born a Crime LitChart as a printable PDF.
Born a Crime PDF

Eden Park Term Timeline in Born a Crime

The timeline below shows where the term Eden Park appears in Born a Crime. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
Racism, Apartheid, and the Cycle of Poverty Theme Icon
Love and Personal Growth Theme Icon
Resilience Through Religion, Education, and Humor Theme Icon
...losing their force. A few months before its ultimate collapse, Patricia and Trevor move to Eden Park , a colored neighborhood with real, suburban houses, surrounded by black townships. Trevor is uncomfortable... (full context)
Chapter 7
Identity, Belonging, and Community Theme Icon
Patricia brings home two black cats a month after she and Trevor move to Eden Park . They are both excited and do not worry about “any nonsense about cats.” In... (full context)
Chapter 9
Racism, Apartheid, and the Cycle of Poverty Theme Icon
...“giant mulberry tree growing out of someone’s front yard” on Trevor and Patricia’s street in Eden Park . The neighborhood’s other children pick its berries and play together under it; Trevor has... (full context)
Chapter 10
Identity, Belonging, and Community Theme Icon
Love and Personal Growth Theme Icon
...he ask Maylene, a girl he walks home from school with—the family has since left Eden Park , and Trevor and Maylene live furthest from school. He does not have a crush... (full context)